MONDAY, 10/20/14
Mondays are becoming my day to take care of all the loose ends around the apartment. It’s grocery buying, utilities paying, drinking water ordering, etc. Lilly comes in around noon, and I spend the morning writing and catching up on paperwork until she arrives. When she walks in, I try to clear out and run my errands so she can work without me sitting in the middle of everything she’s trying to clean.
TUESDAY, 10/21/14
It’s BISS day for me. The beginning band class only gets to meet once this week because of some meetings taking up classroom space on Wednesday. They’re making good progress and we have a productive day.
After class, I grabbed lunch at the neighborhood Chinese restaurant, and then back to the apartment. It’s such a pretty day, I decide to ride the bike over to the table tennis club and try my luck. Each time I show up, more and more people recognize me. I can’t even set my stuff down before someone offers to play. I actually played one guy today I think I could beat. The other three I played were several steps ahead. I haven’t played an actual game, keeping score, with anyone here yet. My guess is no one wants to “lose face” if they were to get beat by the foreigner (fat chance).
We just spend the time hitting back and forth, working on forehands and backhands. I’m getting instruction from all sides. I was busy for the entire 2 hours today, and beginning to wonder if I was going to have enough energy for the bike ride home. By the time I finally got into bed tonight, I could hardly move. I was so sore!
WEDNESDAY, 10/22/14
My singular project today is to get a food item for Judy to take to a “Birthday Breakfast” at BISS Friday morning. I won’t have any time tomorrow, so today’s the day to get it done. I haven’t been to the South German Bakery since we returned to Beijing in July. They have really tasty croissants and breads.
I rode the bike, and had a blast, riding through an area where I used to walk all the time. I’m getting better at reading all the “traffic” (bike, scooter, car, truck, pedestrian) as I ride. I picked up some great cinnamon rolls for the school, and several loaves of bread for ourselves. I even brought back a loaf to Lilly. She’s worked for some German families in the past, and knew the breads from the bakery.